


Memory

by Ziddia



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-12
Updated: 2013-05-15
Packaged: 2017-12-11 14:59:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/800013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ziddia/pseuds/Ziddia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if one of the students remembered the past before everything went to hell?</p><p>Spoilers for the first game/possibly the rest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Do you remember?

It wasn't like blood disturbed him. Hell, as the heir of a corporate giant, he'd been (indirectly) responsible for the deaths of countless opposing parties. He certainly had no particular aversion to death, or to the act of killing. Of course, it was the first time he'd seen a murder personally (his father had always insisted that the family must stay away from the crimes, lest they be implicated in them) but he had no issues with such acts. If he was honest with himself, he was perfectly capable of killing someone with his bare hands, if it gave him a way out of this shithole. It only made sense that he'd be willing to go to such lengths - he had a bright and exciting future ahead of him, and it would be daft of him to throw away any opportunity to escape, even if it meant murdering one of his supposed classmates.

However, despite his somewhat nonchalant attitude towards murder, the sight of a dead body – especially the Ultimate Pop Sensation, Sayaka Maizono’s body – was making him feel more than a little uneasy, to the point where he even felt somewhat dizzy. As the future head of the Togami Corporation outside of the confines of this farce of a school, Byakuya Togami felt that this was less than acceptable. In his opinion, it was just ridiculous for the future head of a dominant financial giant to be brought down by the sight of a little bit of blood.

But no matter what his opinion on the matter was, it was a fact that seeing a beautiful girl dead at his feet was making him decidedly queasy. Togami closed his eyes and pressed a hand against his temples, rubbing them hard, to try and make the unwanted feeling leave his body. When the uneasiness refused to depart, he sighed and opened his eyes wide again.

To his right, he could hear Hagakure noisily vomiting up what little food he had eaten before they had gone to check for Naegi and Maizono. Togami looked away, feeling disgusted at the act. Even if the dizziness he was feeling at the moment was due to some sort of aversion to blood, he wouldn’t be caught dead doing such a thing.

Right in front of him, Kirigiri seemed to be checking on Naegi and Maizono. Her movements were fluid and practiced. She quickly checked for a pulse on Naegi, and, once she had determined that he was alive, she quickly moved on to an investigation of Maizono’s body. Togami almost felt impressed at the air of professionalism she gave off.

His head throbbed angrily, and Togami's thoughts cut off abruptly. He staggered and fell to one knee, clutching at his head with one hand. Fortunately, he managed to avoid falling into the shower and getting blood on his suit. He felt a new spike of pain every time his head pulsed under his hand, and he grimaced at himself. He had hoped to avoid showing any sort of weakness to Kirigiri or Hagakure, but it seemed like it would be unavoidable; his mind was becoming more and more fuzzy as his ability to think rationally gradually left him, leaving more pain in its wake.

However, even as he considered these things, his mind was becoming more and more fuzzy, as the almighty pressure on the edge of his brain grew stronger. His temples were throbbing rhythmically, and he pushed his hands against them, his face twisting into a pained expression.

His face contorted with the pain, and he involuntarily let out a sharp breath, drawing the attention of the others towards him. As Kirigiri and even the still-unwell Hagakure watched him, concerned, the pain spiked up again, and his other leg collapsed beneath him too. He clutched his head with both hands and stifled a scream, as his posture fell and his forehead brushed the tiles below him. An immense pressure was gathering behind his eyelids, and he screwed his eyes tightly shut, trying desperately to escape it. He realized all too late that this went far beyond an adverse reaction to the sight of a corpse - this was something deeper, something far more psychological.

His breathing grew ragged, and he fell once more, lying on his side and clutching his knees to his chest. He could feel a cool touch upon his forehead, and he guessed that it was Kirigiri, taking his temperature. As he pictured this scene, the kanji that made up her name became burned into his brain. Four white-hot characters floated into his vision, behind his tightly-shut eyelids. He howled, as Kirigiri's name pulsed and throbbed under his eyelids, and the pain sprung back up again. It viciously assaulted his mind, and an almighty pressure pushed against his brain. It felt like a swarm of bees, buzzing around his skull, piercing his brain with their sharp stingers - but these were no bees. It was the names of his classmates, fighting for attention at the forefront of his mind. Makoto Naegi - Kirigiri Kyouko - Fujisaki Chihiro - Owada Mondo - Maizono Sayaka - 

\-- Ikusaba Mukuro -- 

He could feel the pressure on his mind burst, and he screamed as two years’ worth of memories flooded into his mind. He could see their happy, smiling faces, and he knew that he had been truly happy to be with them, too. He remembered the hellish images that he'd seen towards the end, the details of the Tragedy, and he remembered the abhorrent plan to lock the world's hope behind the doors of the Academy. He remembered Junko's face, looking as though she were possessed, as she had advanced upon him, the principal's blood still fresh upon the blade of her knife...

His eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed. Alarmed, Kirigiri checked his body over for any sign of trauma, but she found nothing. Though she was unsatisfied with her brief examination, she decided that since he was still healthy and living, she would continue her inspection of Maizono's body instead.

Hearing the sound of the door clicking, Hagakure turned, and Monokuma walked through it. The stuffed animal slowly closed the door behind it, and it raised a paw to its mouth, seemingly trying to keep back giggles.

"My, my," said the bear, a mocking tone in its too-sweet voice. It dropped the paw and laughed outright. "Who would have thought the heir to such a profitable and dominant business would have such an aversion to corpses? One would assume that that would be a fatal flaw, for his family! It sure is unusual... Upupu..."

Both of the two students turned their heads away from him, frowns on their faces. Seemingly becoming bored, the bear barked an order, its tone turning malicious. “Kirigiri, Hagakure. Carry the first weak, pathetic boy to his room. I’m sure dear, sweet Naegi-kun wouldn’t want to wake up amongst all this blood, now would he?”

Kirigiri pursed her mouth unhappily, clearly not content with any part of the situation. Things were rapidly spiraling out of her control, and it made her uneasy. Despite this, it would certainly do more harm than good to disobey him, so she nodded and grabbed at Naegi’s shoulders. After a moment’s hesitation, Hagakure grasped the feet, and the two of them slowly dragged him out of the room.

Turning to the second weak, pathetic boy, Monokuma shook its head. “Well, what am I going to do with you, now, Togami-kun?” it murmured, as it placed a paw on its chin. “I suppose we’ll just have to ask you what happened just now, right?” it continued, and it grabbed him by one arm. Whispering a 'heave, ho' to itself, Monokuma slowly dragged the unconscious Togami outside the room.


	2. I will execute the shit out of everyone.

"Oi, Togami-kun," said a voice from above. It echoed through his skull, and he winced; it was still painful. "Oiii, Togami! Get up!" it called again, and it accompanied the last word with a sharp kick to his side.

Turning his head and lazily opening his eyes, he was surprised to find Enoshima Junko standing over him, her arms crossed under her breasts and a stern look on her face.

"Togami-kun, we've been a little of a naughty boy, haven't we?" she said. Her stern look turned somewhat disapproving.

Togami wiped the sleep from his eyes and sat up. His mind still felt heavy, and for some reason, he felt as though having Junko standing over him like this was highly improbable. "Enoshima-san? I don't recall having done anything to warrant this kind of treatment..." He winced as she kicked him again, and she giggled, seeming to enjoy the pain on his face. "Well, we can ignore that for the moment... why am I in my room? The last thing I remember is finding Maizono. No, wait, even more than that. Why are _you_ in my room? I'm confident I locked up here before I left."

"Your questions are too easy, Togami-kun. I hope you don't have any aspirations to become a teacher, cos you'd be out of a job in no time with tests like that!" She laughed at her own joke, and pulled a shining, silver key ring from one of her pockets. "You're here because I had you carried here, and I'm here because of these," she replied. Although the key ring was large, it carried only one key – if an electronic ID card could even be called a key - and it was definitely a different type of card to his own.

With a suddenly horrible feeling, he came to the only logical conclusion. “That must be the master key – and therefore... You’re the mastermind behind our being locked up here, aren’t you, Enoshima-san?”

Slowly, the memories which had surfaced before he fainted came back to the forefront of his mind. A knife, Junko Enoshima's grinning face, and the body of Kirigiri Jin laying at her feet, punctured by dozens of stab wounds. Togami found it morbidly funny that the way the blood had pooled around the principal had mirrored the scene of Maizono's death so precisely. But what was far less funny was the end of his newly-found memories: a giggling Junko, right up in his face, brandishing the bloodstained knife in one hand while her other hand force-fed him some oddly-coloured pills.

And then, after that... There was nothing.

When he had spoken to her before the Incident, she had come across as a slightly odd, but overall decent person. She'd laughed with the rest of them, and he'd even found himself enjoying her company, to some degree - while he was friendly with all his classmates, sometimes there was just such a disparity between their educations and their upbringings that he found himself looking down on them completely by accident. While Junko was weird, as someone who'd lived the same sort of high-society life that he had, she had been like a breath of fresh air for him. It was inconceivable to him that she could have become such a terrifying monster, who would tell her friends to kill one another – that would participate in such a horrifying game, and even watch idly as Maizono was murdered by one of her classmates.

But on the other hand, even without taking Junko into the equation, it was impossible to picture any of his classmates as having killed Maizono. Even though they had forgotten everything, surely there was some sort of lingering emotion – surely they wouldn’t have fallen so far?

Junko clucked her tongue. "Togami-kun, I don't have all day for you to muddle through this on your own, so I'll spell it out for you." At this, she cleared her throat, and Togami felt some trepidation towards her next words.

"Point one: as you have guessed, I am the mastermind behind all of this. I am the one who trapped you all here. Prior to that, I was the one who caused you all to sign your lives away to Hope’s Peak Academy, and later caused you to lose your memories, and awaken in this locked-down school. I am the leader of the Ultimate Despair, the one who encouraged the destruction of society as we knew it, and the one from whom all nations cower in fear: Junko Enoshima!” She struck a pose, ruining the dramatic mood slightly.

While much of this was expected, such casual affirmations of his fears was a blow to Togami – if this girl, who he had considered to be a close friend, had really been hiding such a personality the whole of the two years they had spent together, then it would be impossible to tell how much damage she could cause to them. Likely, she would continue with this Despair-filled high school life, until they had all turned on each other and destroyed what little hope remained in the Academy.

She leaned in closer and poked his chest. Togami flinched; her presence was overpowering.

"Point two: you have regained many - possibly all - of your memories, and are a liability to me. I have investigated this point, so don’t even bother trying to fool me. As a result of this, I need to come up with a way to deal with you." A malicious grin appeared on her face, and even her tone of voice changed. She seemed almost to transform before him, into a completely different person. "You see, I'm not terribly surprised that you, of all people, regained your memories. Don't you remember, Togami-kun? We were kindred spirits, drifting together, far above the heads of the masses, who couldn't possibly picture the world which we lived in..." She chortled, even as she defiled his precious memories of her with her words. "Clearly, it would be impossible for someone as strong-willed and clever witted as you to be taken in by my memory wipe! So, I must come up with a different way to silence you." Togami gulped, silently dreading the dark turn that her words had taken.

"While I deliberated over murder for some time, I have decided against it – after all, you can never have too many moles within such a dynamic group of students. Therefore, you will become my confidant. You will not breathe a word of my identity to anybody, and you will report any interesting matters to me. If you attempt to tell anyone, I will execute the shit out of everyone. If you even breathe a word of this to anyone besides myself, I will execute the shit out of everyone. If you interrupt with the Trial, I will execute the shit out of everyone. If you attempt to hide information from me, I will execute the shit out of everyone." Having said these words, Junko pouted, once again ruining the heavy mood which she'd created. "Y'know, I don't really wanna execute the shit outta everyone? I'd much prefer it if they killed the shit out of each other. I would get more than my fair share of despair from that outcome!"

Togami felt some amount of dread at the thought of his friends dying, but stowed the emotion away inside, covering his face with a smirk. He wasn’t the Ultimate Affluent Progeny for nothing – he was the successor to one of the most powerful corporations in the world, regardless of whether that corporation existed anymore, and being the heir to such a dominant force in the market meant being a professional at masking his feelings. "And what if I decide that revealing you is more important than my own life - more important than everyone's lives?”

She smirked back at him, her demeanor changing once again. She felt almost regal, and her form seemed to grow larger and more intimidating before him. Togami sat up a little straighter, trying to match her overwhelming presence. "I have taken precautions, of course. No one would believe you – from the beginning, I have had Mukuro posing as me, and not an hour ago, I had her publicly executed.”

Togami was both appalled and impressed. Although the woman was very obviously insane and what she had done was terrifying, a person who could execute their own sister in an attempt to cover themselves was a formidable opponent indeed. For a moment, he felt a twinge of anguish; Mukuro, too, had been one of his dear friends, during his life at Hope's Peak. But he buried it deep inside. There'd be time to grieve after he got the hell out of there.

Oblivious to his turmoil, Enoshima continued talking. "Now, you're probably thinking, 'what's this Trial thing you mentioned not so long ago, Junko-sama?!' I'm sure that you'll learn more about it from your friends, and I don’t like explaining things twice. So for now, here is your answer: after each murder, a trial will be held, to see if you can figure out who the culprit is. I'm sure you can guess the punishments for either side..." Junko let out a small giggle. Togami did not join her. Judging by her tone, regardless of what the punishment really is, it wouldn’t be pleasant for anyone participating.

"Anyway, that brings me to point three: you will not participate in the Trial, or the investigation effort before the trial, ever. You will not even search for bodies. You will be a good boy, and you will not reveal anything to anyone. If you break this rule, I will execute the shit out of everyone. And, well - I'm sure that would be unpleasant for the both of us.”

Togami’s mind whirled, attempting to find a loophole – a way to stop all his friends from being executed if he slipped up. But despite his immense intellect, he was drawing a blank. For the first time, he cursed the fact that he was the only one who had recovered; if only Kirigiri had been in his shoes, the Ultimate Detective would have been able to think of a way out of it. But in the end, he could find nothing. So, he spoke up, once again disguising his anguish by speaking forcefully. “I don’t suppose that, as I won’t be participating, you could at least tell me who did it?”

She seemed to think about it for a moment, then smiled and shrugged, as though to say ‘why not?’. Togami doubted that she had decided to trust him fully; it was far more likely that she thought the despair he would generate would be far greater if he knew what had occurred. 

“As anyone who can read English in a mirror would have been able to tell, it was Kuwata Leon-kun – the answer to Maizono’s dying message.”

At his sharp intake of breath, Junko laughed and clapped her hands. "That was exactly what I was hoping to hear from you! Aah, the despair is so strong it's almost palpable! Togami Byakuya-kun, you have really made my day..." She smiled, but as she launched another kick towards his side, Togami knew that she wasn't growing any fonder of him. "Once you remove the bonds they forged over the past two years, they seemed to stop looking at each other like human beings, let alone friends!" She giggled softly, once again. “And it wasn’t even Kuwata-kun who struck first! The despair in the air when Maizono-san's attack failed created such a perfect atmosphere!”

Togami was slightly shocked. Although they had been almost inseparable during their days at Hope’s Peak – a fact that they had been teased about almost constantly – Leon and Maizono had been the first of his classmates to break down and succumb to this killing game.

At his speechlessness, Junko's eyes turned cold and bored, and seemed to take it as a sign that it was time for her to go. “I think I’ve caused enough despair here to last me a while, Togami-kun. I’ll be seeing you soon!” She patted his cheek once. Still shocked from the news, he didn’t even move.

***

Despite spending more than half an hour sorting through the events of the past day, he had still come to no ideas as to a way out of Junko’s demands. As a result, he eventually left his room, mentally and physically drained, with a resigned feeling in his heart: he would have to help Junko, the perpetrator of two deaths so far, to indirectly kill more of their classmates.

Although his position as the heir of a grand corporation made this job fairly suitable for him, it was an entirely different thing to cause the death of a stranger, or business rival, than it was to cause the death of a friend.

"Hey, Togami-kun!" calls a voice, and he jumps, thinking that she'd come back to kill him after all - but no, it was just Asahina, looking slightly peeved as she walked towards him. "Where've you been? We were looking for you after we found Maizono-san, but we couldn't find you anywhere."

"I wanted to spend some time in my room, to think. Is there a problem with that?" he replied, perhaps a little more aggressively than he had wanted to. He tried to smooth his face and his tone a little; he may have been forced into a corner by Junko, but Asahina was fully unrelated to that.

"I was just looking for you, since I thought you'd be a little better at solving mysteries than I am... We need all the brains we have for this Trial!" Asahina's reply caught his attention quickly.

"What exactly is this trial you're talking about? I don't remember hearing about it."

She gasped. "Oh, you weren't at the gym, were you?" When he shook his head, she continued. "After you and Naegi-kun passed out, he explained a bunch of stuff to us, like how the Trial worked - we need to gather evidence to figure out the murderer. If we guess right, the murderer is executed. But if we guess wrong..." Her voice trailed off slowly, but Togami was able to fill in the gaps.

"Sorry to disappoint, but I don't think I'll be of much use for this one, either," said Togami. At Asahina's questioning look, he vaguely continued. "I've never been good with detective novels, and I'm sure people like Naegi-kun and Kirigiri-san will manage just fine."

Asahina laughed slightly. "I guess you're right about that. Why don't you come to the cafeteria with me, then? There a few of us who aren't really doing anything for the investigation, so we're just kind of hanging out."

Togami shrugged. Why not? It not like he had any chance of contributing, so he could try and help another way - by strengthening their bonds of friendship, to prevent another murder.

***

"Really, Byakuya-sama? Did you actually pay off those crooks to save your company?" Fukawa's hands were clasped, her expression elated as she hung on to Togami's every word. It almost made him grimace; although his exploits may seem odd to the everyday citizen, they weren't nearly as exciting as she was making them out to be.

Hagakure was predicting Asahina's future with a set of tarot cards at the other end of the table, so it had become Togami's job to take care of Fukawa. It might not have been the best idea - the girl seemed to become attached to anything that broke through her persecution complex, and it certainly didn't help that he knew exactly what to say to make her tick.

Suddenly, there were footsteps on the other side of the room. Instantly, Togami turned his head; Naegi and Kirigiri had already passed by a couple times, and he was trying to keep an accurate measure of the investigation, so he could try and 'accidentally' re-align it if they began to stray from the Leon route.

Surprisingly, it was neither of those two who rushed through the door, but Celes. She sat down delicately next to Hagakure, drawing her own pack of cards. "Want to play a game?" she asked, turning her head to Togami and Fukawa as well.

Togami moved his chair down the table and sat beside Asahina. Fukawa followed him quickly, pulling up a chair beside him and sitting just a little bit too close for comfort. Celes was one of the fastest dealers Togami had ever seen - but that was to be expected from the Ultimate Gambler.

"We're gonna play a game of poker, just to try and calm everyone's nerves. I'm pretty sure everyone got a little too excited over this trial, so we should just relax until it happens." Celes winked, and then suddenly her face became a cool mask, wiping away all traces of an expression.

Typically, even though she seemed to be downplaying her own strength throughout the whole match, she won every game, despite Togami's best efforts to win. The way which she made herself seem like a weak player, even as she was wiping the floor with them... It was this kind of strategy which had spawned her second title, and had given her such a bad reputation. In gambling circles, she was well-known as the 'Queen of Liars', and she was avoided by the other pros as much as they possibly could.

 

Looking around at the gathering of talented individuals around him, he felt a firm resolve rising in his chest. Knowing that, one by one, his closest friends would be pushed past their breaking point and would eventually turn on one another made him want to cry. But he kept his outwards composure, not letting his emotions slip onto his face.

...after all, he couldn't be sure what Enoshima would take as a sign that he was cheating.

But there was no way he could sit idly by and just let despair take over his classmates. He'd known that there would be a way to fight back, and he'd finally found it, as he stared at each of the faces of his classmates. After all, he knew them so well, and cared for every single one of them. Even he, who was meant to be aloof and uncaring, had somehow been brought down from his pedestal and been made to care for these people - and the way he cared for them made the idea of killing them absolutely abhorrent to him. If he could only make the rest of them feel the same, he could surely bring an end to this senseless killing. And there was only one way to do that.

To make his friends remember everything, just like he did.

Too bad he hadn't remembered in time.

***

It felt like no time at all had passed until Junko-Monobear called over the radio.

"The School Trial is about to begin!"

As a gloomy atmosphere descended once again over the card-playing group, they all slowly shuffled into the lift.

Looking around - seeing Leon for the first time since he had regained his memories - seeing all these friends who had forgotten him. It pained Togami to know that, within less than an hour... They would have lost at least one member.

The lift descended.

***

"YOU'VE GOT THAT WRONG!" screamed Naegi yet again, making Togami grimace. Kirigiri seemed to enjoy watching Naegi struggle with the evidence; he was sure that she knew the culprit already and was just trying to push Naegi to find it out for himself. As beneficial as that would be to Naegi, it was hardly helpful to Togami, whose only goal was to get out of there as quickly as he possibly could.

Every now and then, he had spoken up himself; some of the only enjoyment he had gotten out of this trial was tormenting Naegi with the threat of naming him the culprit. It had impressed him at least a little when Naegi had managed to prove himself innocent - it was more than Togami had thought him capable of.

As the Trial dragged on, theories were made and disproven; accusations were thrown back and forth; Monobear grinned and shot him evil grins and glares as they moved closer and closer to the true answer - the true culprit, Leon.

And Togami, who could do nothing, was forced to sit by and watch, as Leon grew more and more nervous, Naegi screamed whenever someone tried to talk, and Kirigiri held all the cards close to her chest, her face an unreadable mask.

***

Togami locked in his vote, breathing a sigh of relief as the trial finally began to end. Within moments, Monobear declared that Leon would be the one to be executed, as he was the one who committed the crime of murder.

The execution was brutal, but in Togami's eyes, it was no less than he deserved, for killing the person he should have been closest to. Togami's only regret was that he hadn't been quick enough to save the two of them.

Somehow, he'd have to force every single one of his friends to regain their memories... Before there was nobody left to save.


End file.
